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A PAGE OF AMERICAN 
HISTORY 



By EDWARD H. THOMPSON 



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A PAGE OF AMEKICAlSr HISTORY. 



Paper Read Before the American Antiquarian Society 
AT Worcester, Mass., October 21, 1905. 



BY EDWARD H. THOMPSON. 



The field whereon occurred the events which this paper 
chronicles is the whole Peninsula of Yucatan. The chief 
actors in these events are the descendants of the indomitable 
Maya race, that once made this peninsula the centre of a 
civihzation, the descendants of the invading Spaniards who 
cut short the Hfe of that civihzation, and a band of strangers 
from the North. These last were the type of men that first 
tamed the wilds of Canada, made known the virgin richness 
of New England, settled Kentucky, and later drove the 
wedge of civihzation into the unknown West. 

At the time these events occurred, that called into play 
these three factors of humanity, the methods of communi- 
cation throughout the peninsula were of a mediaeval char- 
acter. Native runners and vaqueros on horseback furnished 
the only means of rapid communication, while fitters, man 
carried, the saddle, or the strange two-wheeled volan coche 
drawn by three mules, furnished the means of rapid transit 
to the fortunate ones who could command such conven- 
ience. All others who travelled either went on foot or rode 
on the springless, brakeless, sideless carreta, drawn by six 
mules, that carried the heavy freight between the larger 
cities. In those days, many of the larger towns were not 
connected, even by a wagon road. A narrow, winding mule- 
path was the only connection with the outside world, and 
during the long night hours the hoarse cry of the arrieres, 
urging on the pack mules, was constantly heard. 

There were revolutions in those days; sometimes, indeed, 
there were even revolutions within the revolution itself. 



But strangely enough, with all tliis seetliing and foaming 
of heated blood and boiling ambition, as if clarified by it, 
there was evolved a spirit of letters among the cultured 
minds on the Peninsula, that has never been equalled 
before or since. EHgio Ancona, the novehst and historian, 
whose hatred of the CathoHc rehgion was only equalled by 
his benevolence to some of its strongest adherents, Cresencio 
Carrillo, Bishop of Yucatan, whose hatred of atheism was 
only equalled by his benevolence toward some of its follow- 
ers, Justo Sierra, Asnar Contreras are names of this epoch 
that still ring clear in Yucatan today. 

The white Yucatecon of that day, whether hidalgo or 
artisan, was no degenerate. As a type he was generous 
but individually rather slow to arouse, passionate in the 
mass, hospitable and patriotic, although the patriotism^ of 
many was the loyalty to their leaders rather than devotion 
to the cause. They knew how to fight and they fought 
well, as the troops from Mexico, when arrayed against 
them, found out. Thus, man to man, native white against 
native red, the odds were not unequal. Today Yucatan 
has rapid trains, telegraph and telephone, w^ell paved streets 
and all the most advanced ideas of the twentieth century. 
Modern Yucatan finds it hard herself to realize that such 
events as are described herein have taken place within her 
borders and wdthin the memory of men still hving. 

During the middle part of the last century, events were 
taking place in Yucatan that, had they happened in other 
lands or at other times, would have become subjects of epic 
poems. But the place of happening w^as on a distant, 
ragged edge of the American continent, more unknown, 
perhaps, to the average American of those times, than is 
the darkest spot of the Dark Continent to the citizen of 
today. Then, too, the time of happening was during one 
of those strange periods of world ferment, when each great 
nation was busy making its own history and had but Uttle 
inclination to scan the minor records of its neighbors, near or 



distant. Mexico herself was yet panting and heaving with 
the effects of her own struggles and in no condition to aid, 
while the United States was in the deUrium of the gold 
fever, and besides, events were gradually shaping themselves 
that, later, were to lead to the war of the rebellion. " Thus 
it was that when the "Sovereign State of Yucatan" was 
called upon to witness the death struggle between her white 
and her red-skinned children, she vainly called upon the 
outside world for aid and was finally compelled to rely 
upon such efforts as her patriotic sons could make. 

It was during this hfe and death struggle between the 
two races that a page of American history became inter- 
calated in the history of Yucatan, and though so saved, 
yet practically lost. It is the purpose of the writer to restore 
this page, a stirring record of deeds of valor and bizarre 
bravery of a band of American citizens, to its proper place 
in American annals. That we may see clearly and with 
understanding read this page, we must have before us a 
synopsis of the events leading up to the actions that it 
records. 

From 1506 to 1519, various Spanish adventm-ers, Solis, 
Cordoba, Grijalva, and Cortes, had skirted the coasts of 
Yucatan and had at various times sought to make the 
land their own. Each time the assembled natives, well 
drilled, well armed for those times, and well led, received 
them so sturdily that the adventuresome strangers were 
very well content to betake themselves to their ships again 
while they were yet able, the more so as it at last became 
apparent that the conquest, even when made, offered them 
but little glory and still less gold, two things greatly sought for 
by these Castihan adventurers. Finally, in 1527, the hidalgo, 
Francisco de Montejo, came and spied out the land. By 
some occult process of reasoning he found it good. He 
struggled mightily at the task but died before he could 
prove his reasoning good, and his son took up the task 
that his father had turned over to him some time previous 



to his death. The younger Montejo worked at it dihgcntly, 
masterfully, as a smith works over refractory metal. The 
native I\Iayas were like very refractory metal, but the 
younger Montejo was like a very clever siiiith, and he found 
the flux that enabled liim to make them Hke a molten, 
plastic mass under liis manipulation. Then he kneaded 
and pounded and pressed them until they were moulded to 
his liking. To be sure, when he and his impiediate suc- 
cessors had called their work well done there were many 
natives less in the land, but even then the Mayas outnum- 
bered their conquerors by several hundred fold and only 
stern measures and the memory of merciless reprisals kept 
the conquered natives down. On the whole they kept 
them down, below the danger mark, but the Maya race of 
Yucatan was seemingly a far more virile race than the 
natives of Cuba so quickly exterminated by the Spaniards, 
and despite their subjugation and the servile condition of 
even the highest among them, they not only increased in 
numbers but actually enforced their language upon their 
conquerors. Today, he who hves in Yucatan, outside the 
greater cities and cannot speak the native tongue, is Hke 
one apart. 

Among the Mayas of every province, since the earliest 
days, there has been one of power and prominence, either 
by the inheritance of a noble family name or by a force of 
nature and strong will. When the Spanish laws came into 
force and being, they left, to such of these Maya chiefs as 
evinced desu-es to do the bidding of these laws, a shadowy 
vestige of their old time power. These men, known then 
as now among the natives by the native title of Batah, were 
called by the Spaniards for some curious reason by the 
Haytian term of Cacique. Batab or Cacique, they were 
obeyed most impUcitly by the native people, who were thus 
by their influence made better citizens and servants. But 
from this class of natives, born to conunand and strong in 
will power, were to come, in later years, the leaders destined 



to lead the rebelUous natives to many fearful victories over 
the descendants of the hated white invaders. 

At the time of Stephens's famous visit to Yucatan (1839- 
1841) the native race was still in the sullen apathy of the 
conquered towards the conquerors. There was an apparent 
tranquihty over all the Peninsula. Travellers could and 
did journey from Bacalar to ValladoUd and from ValladoUd 
to Merida without danger to hfe and without more discom- 
forts than was incident to the rigors of the sun, the presence 
of irritating insects and the primitive ways of conveyance- 
This apparent quiet was not the tranquihty of contented 
prosperity but the sullen constraint, and beneath that 
deceptive calm was a deep,seething hate that only needed able 
leaders and a favorable opportunity to find vent and over- 
whelm the land in a carnage as terrible as that of the Sepoys 
in Eastern India. Able leaders were ready, plannmg, 
scheming, resourceful, patiently biding their time and oppor- 
tunity. 10^ ^\ 
* About fifty miles to the south of ValladoUd was (m 1847) 
the old ranch of Tihum. No one knows its age or origin, 
and it may well have been a native ranch before the con- 
quest. Great trees were grown up around it, trees that 
may antedate the Conquest. Neither the Government or 
the Church had more than a vague knowledge of its exist- 
ence, and no chapel or cross was ever found within its 
confines. No one knows what idolatrous rites had taken 
place within the darkness of its hidden history. Within 
the safe confines of this ranch, three powerful Caciques of 
Yucatan, Ay, the Cacique of Chichimila, Ceciho Chid the 
ferocious, tigerish cacique of Tepich and Jacinto Pat, the 
astute and able cacique of Tijosuco, together with others 
of lesser note, plotted and planned. Here, under the dark, 
noisome shade of the great trees was brewed the venom 
of the secret rebellion against the white race, a rebelhon 
that was destined to last for half a century and to reduce the 
population of Yucatan from 531,000 souls in 1847 to 312,000 



in 1900. Strange as it may seem, the wliite population 
of Yucatan went on their accustomed ways with an incred- 
ible sense of security. Although events that should have 
warned them were not lacking, few or no attempts were 
made to assuage the many real and some fancied wrongs 
against the native race. On the contrary, with strange 
obsession various local magnates by high-handed and 
arbitrary measures actually seemed to invite the outbreak. 

THE WAR OF THE RACES BEGINS. 

Don Miguel Rivero, an old planter, Uving on his plantation 
"Acambalam, " some thirty miles from ValladoUd, was a 
victim to insomnia and was accustomed to take long noc- 
turnal strolls about his plantation. 'WTiile thus occupied 
he noted, night after night, large bodies of Indians stealthily 
passing liis ranch, going with the quick native trot, toward 
Calumpich, the principal ranch and abiding place of Jacinto 
Pat, the Cacique of Tijosuco. Distrustful of the cause, he 
sent a faithful native servant to join one of these bands as 
they passed and learn what it all meant. The servant soon 
came back and reported that there was to be a great uprising 
of the Indians all over Yucatan, and that these they saw 
were carrying provisions and powder and shot to Calumpich 
to be kept hidden until ready for use. Finding his fears 
only too well founded, Rivero fled with all liis family to 
Valladohd and there gave his fateful news to the authorities. 
Even while the authorities were taking the declaration of 
Rivero an urgent communication came from the judge in 
the town of Chichimila, the town of which the native Manuel 
Ay was Cacique, informing them that Manuel Ay, while 
under the influence of hquor had revealed the fact that a 
general uprising of the natives was about to take place . 
With these facts before them the local authorities and the 
general government acted with great but belated energy. 
May was arrested and, confessing his part, was at once 
executed. But the time for the revolution had so nearly 



come that when Pat and Chi heard of their fellow conspi- 
rator's capture, which they did with marvellous qmckness 
by the means that the natives know so well how to use 
f'the grapevine telegraph," they at once gave the signal 
and immediately wails of human suffering and despair rose 
all over the country. It is useless to go into detail; from 
now on, burned villages, outraged homes, and bloody work 
not wholly on the side of the Indians, make a long and 
evil Ust not good to look upon and one that I shall leave 

with pleasure. 

The rebeUious natives seemed for a while unconquerable; 
their savage ferocity and valor seemed irresistible. The 
long highway from Valladolid to Merida was thronged 
with constant streams of weary pilgrims striving to reach 
safety At times the natives would plunge with the ferocity 
of demons upon these throngs of panic-stricken pilgrims, 
and at other times they would most strangely refrain from 
bloody deeds when they might easily have worked a fiendish 
will had they so desired. It is supposed that Jacmto Tat, 
the most humane of the rebelUous chiefs, held back his 
band from useless rapine and slaughter, while Ceciho tin, 
a human tiger, lost no time to glut his appetite for outrage 
and bloodshed. For a time it seemed as if the rebelhous 
natives would indeed make good their threats and drive 
the white men into the sea. Town after town, city after 
city, fell by the torch and mascab of the triumphant 

Mayas. 

From bleeding Yucatan went up a bitter wail for succor. 
Commissioners were sent to Mexico, to the United States, 
and even to the island of Cuba, asking for aid. At last, 
in very desperation, she was wilhng to sacrifice her dear 
bought independence to save her actual existence, and the 
authorities of the United States were informally consulted 
on that dehcate point, but the opinions given weresounam- 
mously against the probabiHties of success on that hne that 
the project was given up. 



8 

But while the United States could not and would not 
interfere in the matter ofRcially, it has been stated by 
those who were at the time in a position to know, that all 
possible aid and encouragement, short of actual and direct 
official aid, was given them in this their hour of need. How 
much or how little truth there is in this statement is not 
for me to say at this time, whatever I may discover and 
make pubhc at a later date. Suffice it now to say that 
in the year 1847 a well drilled, well armed and perfectly 
uniformed force of nine hundred and thirty-eight men 
disembarked at the then port of Sisal, from saihng vessels 
hailing from New Orleans, and were at once ordered to 
Merida, where they went into barracks on the site of what 
is now the Suburban Pohce Station, at Santiago Square. 
From there they went, as ordered, to the front, and most 
of them to their death, for I am told that of the nine hun- 
dred and tbJrty-eight that disembarked at Sisal, only eleven 
lived to reach the United States. 

From now on I shall quote the statements of active 
participants on both sides of the struggle, statements made 
to me personally and noted down with great care. Two 
of the survivors of the Americans, Edward Pinkus and 
Michael Foster, were yet living in Merida during my 
remembrance. Of these two, one, Pinrus, has since died 
and the other, Foster, still Hves but with impaired mind, 
Fortunately, before the one had died and the other had 
lost his intelUgence, I had improved a favorable oppor- 
tunity and had obtained from them statements as given 
below. 

Edward Pinkus was born, he told me, in Warsaw in 1820; 
he came to America at an early age and in due time be- 
came a full American citizen and an enthusiastic admirer 
of our American institutions. He was with General Scott 
throughout the Mexican war. After peace was concluded 
he returned to the United States, where he Uved until 
summoned by Ms old officer. Col. White, of the Southern 



9 

Rangers, to serve as his adjutant on an expedition against 
the rebelUous Indians of Yucatan. After the Rangers 
were formally disbanded (death had practically disbanded 
them some time before), Pinkus, wounded and sick nigh 
unto death, returned to Merida. There he was tenderly 
nursed back to hfe and health by the lady, a native of 
Merida, whom he afterward married. Afterward he went in 
and fought against the French by the side of Juarez. When 
peace was again declared he returned to Merida and started 
what was then the finest tailoring estabhshment in the 
province. He Uved to see his sons grow up to be men of 
influence and respectabihty in the community. He died 
in 1904, indirectly from the wounds received in the fights 
with the Indians. I now give his direct, personal state- 
ment : — 

"I came over as Adjutant to Col. White, commanding 
Southern Rangers. Our officers were Col. White, Lieu- 
tenant Colonel Linton, Captain Smith and Captain Daws. 
Captain Daws came over first with two hundred men and 
Colonel White came over some time after, but Colonel 
White was in full command. We were in all nine hundred 
and thirty-eight men and, of all these fighting men, only 
eleven hved to reach the United States again. Our first 
fight with the Indians was at Sacalum and they beat us 
bad, for they fought hke devils, but the second time they 
attacked us, at nine o'clock that same night, we beat them 
badly. I, with a part of our force was in Tijosuco when 
it suffered the great siege, and there we lost a great many 
men and officers. In the battles of Bacalar, in the three 
battles of Chan Santa Cruz, at Tabi, Peto and, most of all, 
at Calumpich, we lost most of our men. I was wounded 
three times. Captain Daws was one of those who hved to 
return to the States. When I was in San Francisco in 1890 
I saw him there. He was short and fat but a good officer 
and very brave." 

Michael Foster, the second and last known survivor of 
the fighting Americans in Yucatan, was born in Philadel- 
phia in 1823, and is now eighty-two years old. He was, 



10 

as he frankly states, of a roving, incorrigible disposition 
and apparently was given by the authorities the alternative 
of joining the expedition to Yucatan or going to prison. He 
enhsted and served with WTiite until the rangers were dis- 
banded, when he married a native of Yucatan by whom he 
had one son, Carlos Foster, still hving. 

Michael Foster was, at the time of making his statement, 
in 1904, clear in intellect but had almost forgotten his 
native tongue. He spoke the Spanish and the native Maya 
tongue \^'ith far greater facility than he did the EngUsh 
language. His statement is as follows: 

"I came to Yucatan with Colonel ^\liite. We disem- 
barked at Sisal and then marched on to Merida. There 
we executed the Cacique of Santiago; he was shot in the 
yard of the Santiago PoUce Station where we were in bar- 
racks. During the battles of Peto and Ichmul we lost 
many of our men. At Santa Maria we lost forty-seven 
and at Tabi thirty-six, but at Calumpich nearly three 
hundred of our bravest men were killed. The Indians 
there played us a trick; they made concealed pitfalls in the 
path and placed sharp pointed stakes at the bottom; then 
they appeared and dared us to come on; we rushed after 
them with hurrahs and many of our men fell into the pits; 
we lost many men that day but w'e kiUed a great many 
more of the Indians than they did of our men. Pinkus 
and myself are now the only ones left and I guess that we 
will go soon too. I am over eighty and have hved hard all 
my hfe." 

General Naverrette, an old Indian fighter of Yucatan, 
whose scarred body bears witness to his valor, stated to 
me as foUow^s: 

"Colonel White was my friend and so was Captain Daws; 
both were brave men and strict disciplinarians. The men 
they commanded were brave men and died valiantly, 
almost to a man. They suffered their greatest losses at 
the siege of Tijosuco and the battles of Calumpich." 



11 

I will now give the statements of those who actually 
fought against those men and, right here it may be well to 
note two interesting facts, that by a curious coincidence 
make me, perhaps, of all hving persons, the only man 
who could produce these statements. Several years ago, 
while on an exploration mto the then almost unexplored inte- 
rior, I chanced upon an aged native working his milpa alone. I 
spent some time in the neighborhood investigating a hitherto 
imknowm ruined group, and during a part of this time he 
worked for me. Being conversant with his language, 
although a stranger, gave him confidence in me to the extent 
that he told me his fife history. He had been one of the 
Sublevados and had fought in the battles of Tabi and Ichmul 
against the white strangers. Afterwards, when the great 
war chief, Cresencio Foot, was traitorously killed by an 
under chief, Aniceto Dzul, he, too, fled with other adherents 
of Foot, m fear of his Hfe. Since then he had hved alone 
and in constant fear on one hand of the white men and on 
the other of the Indians. Upon my next return to Merida, 
I interested the Governor in his story and was to bring 
him back with me to Merida, guaranteeing him safety and 
good treatment. But when I went back on my next trip, 
no traces of him personally could be found, although his 
gun and his hammock were in their accustomed place. It 
seems most probable that he was kiUed, either by some 
poisonous reptile, a jaguar, or perhaps by some roving band 
of the Sublevados, his former companions. 

The second interesting fact is that Leandro Foot, the 
younger brother of the former war chief of the rebeUious 
Mayas, is now and has been for several years a dweUer 
upon my plantation of Chichen. We have had many hours 
of pleasant and interesting conversation and the statement 
he gives was in this way obtained. 

Dionisio Fee, the sohtary maker of milpas made his 
statement as follows, and I have tried as far as was possible 
to preserve his style of making it in the vernacular. 



12 

"Among those who fought us at Ichmul and Tabi were 
strange white men, 'Dzulob,' They fought like very brave 
men and caused us many deaths. We had guns and powder 
from Behze but we had few balls and so we often had to 
use small stones; also we made balls of red earth, well 
mixed with honey and hard dried in the sun. These balls 
made bad wounds and hard to heal. The stranger white 
men fought close together and for that reason it was easy 
to kill them. But they were brave men and laughed at 
death and before they died they killed many of our men." 

Statement of Leandro Poot, giving Cresencio Foot's 
account of the battle with the stranger white men: 

"I was then young and not in the councils of those who 
commanded in those days, but I well remember the tales 
told me of the strange white men. When the strange white 
men came up against our people we were perplexed and 
did not know what to do. Our quarrel was not with them 
and they spoke the language of Behze, and Belize was not 
against us, so we waited to see what was meant. Then 
some of our people who came over to us from the white 
man's side, told us that these big stranger white men 
were friends of the white man of T'Ho (Merida) and had 
come to help him kill us. Then we fought them, but we 
had rather they had not come, for we only wanted to kill 
those that had lied to us- and had done us great harm, to 
us and to our families, and even these wt had rather send 
away across the water to where their fathers came from, 
and where they would cause us no more harm. It is finished. 
We fought them and we fought the white men from T'Ho 
and from Sacci (Valladohd) too, and we killed both the 
stranger white men and the white men from T'Ho and 
those from Sacci. It was easy to kill the stranger Avhite 
men, for they were big and fought in hne, as if they 
were marching, while the white men from T'Ho and Sacci 
fought as we do, lying down and from behind the trees 
and rocks. 

"But these white men were very brave. Their captain 
was very brave. My brother said he was the bravest man 
he ever saw\ So brave was he that my brother said he 
very foolishly spared liis life once when he could easily 



13 

have shot him. My brother admired a brave man, but he 
said that he was fooHsh that he did not shoot the captain 
when he had the chance, for it is a man's duty to kill his 
enemy. But all the people said that the stranger white 
men were the bravest men they ever saw. They laughed 
at death and went toward it with joy, as a young man runs 
to a handsome woman. When first we met the stranger 
white men, they had built up, right in our path, a strong 
fence of tliick tree trunks and behind that were the stranger 
white men and in the woods on each side were the white 
men from T'Ho and Sacci. Some of the stranger white 
men were clothed in uniform, the kiad they always wore^ 
while others were naked to the waist, with a red cloth tied 
around their heads and their swords buckled about their 
waists. Their big bodies were pink and red in the sunlight 
and from their throats came their strange war cry, Hu-Ha! 
Hu-Ha! (evidently a Hurrah). They were brave men and 
shot keenly. Some of them were such good shooters that 
no man could hope to escape when once they pointed at 
him; no, whether he ran or walked or crawled, it made no 
difference unless he could hide behind a tree before the 
shot was fired, and even then some of those who reached 
the tree were dead as they fell behind it, for the balls had 
found them., even as they ran behind it. 

"So for a time we greatly feared these strange white 
men and only sought to keep out of their reach. Had they 
stayed behind their defences and only used their guns as 
they could use them, no one knows what might have hap- 
pened, for our people were so scared of the big, pink-skinned 
men with their terrible cries and their death shots, that 
they could not be made to stand up against them. But 
the stranger white men were too brave, for they threw 
their lives away, and when they found that we did not 
come up to them, they jumped over the wall that they 
had made and came to seek us. We hid behind the trees 
and rocks, wherever we could, that they might not see us, 
and so, one by one, we killed them. They killed many of 
us but we were many times their numbers and so they 
died. Brave men, very brave. Some died laughing and 
some with strange words in their own tongue, but none 
died cowardly. I do not think any escaped. I think they lay 
where they died, for in those days we had no time to eat or 
to sleep or to bury the dead." 



14 



This can but serve as a simple brief made record of an 
interesting event gone by. The true record, replete in 
date and detail, must come later when time and circum- 
stance permit the labor and fulfilment of the perfected 
work. 



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LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



015 991 887 7 



